Letterman Needs A Little Backbone

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David Letterman is talking as though he’s going to be the biggest quitter since Ross Perot.

Letterman underscored his “poor little rich churl” routine when he told the New York Daily News on Thursday that he plans to quit late-night television after his contract with CBS expires.

“I think more than likely we will stay here through the contract (until the year 2000), and then that’ll be it for us,” he said. “Unless something dramatic happens, this is probably our last hurrah.”

“Something dramatic” would be an upturn in CBS’ prime-time ratings, which are moribund at the moment. CBS was No. 1 when “Late Show” premiered in August 1993 to uniformly rave reviews from TV critics. Meanwhile, “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno was drawn and quartered in the press while NBC limped to a No. 3 finish in prime time.

Now the tables are turned. “Tonight’s” 4.9 to 4.0 win last week was its 10th in a row against “Late Show.”

“We’re kind of struggling now with the perception that seems to be hovering that the show sucks,” Letterman lamented. “That’s frustrating because we still believe that on some nights, we can do a pretty good show.”

He’ll get no sympathy here. CBS is paying Letterman $14 million a year to be a team player in good times and bad. And if there’s a perception his show “sucks,” it’s being fostered mostly by Letterman and his seeming paranoia.

It would be nice to see a little backbone in return. Instead, Letterman essentially is saying he just isn’t strong enough to pull in an audience on his own. Dave has proved he can stand prosperity. But he still hasn’t shown he can stand and fight.